


Inclinations

by taichara



Category: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors
Genre: Drabble Collection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 16:42:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14524890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: Ten drabbles for Yoroiden Samurai Troopers.





	1. The Depths of Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> These drabbles were originally written for the YST [30th Anniversary Fanzine Project](https://www.emily-wing.com/rwfanzine/), a free digital zine.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Touma looks for a strategy.

_'For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction' --_

_Yeah, yeah, but past events say that human beings aren't as cut and dried._

Perched as high as he dared to go -- only so high as Nasuti's roof -- Touma lay back, stared up at the night sky, and considered their collective options. 

On the one hand, Arago could be, had _been_ defeated before; on the other, they were a man down, unbalanced, and missing allies. And the quiet couldn't last forever.

Somewhere in all his reading he had to have stumbled on a winning strategy; he just had to remember...


	2. Carry On The Wave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shin believes.

It would come out fine in the end. No matter what they faced, no matter what nether-spawned monstrosities came clawing at their heels --

\-- no matter that _small surprise_ of having a toxic doppelganger made by some twisted madman --

\-- it would all come out fine in the end. That one belief buoyed Shin though it all, and he could only hope he held onto it.

No, he _would_. To his very depths, he believed that.

And, watching the other laughing, joking, twitting Ryo, teasing Byakkuen with a feather, Shin felt not even a whisper of a doubt.

Together, they'd _do_ this.


	3. Brief Shining Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seiji chooses as he must.

For a heartbeat Seiji was certain he'd won. 

Everything -- everything! -- in the match came roaring back as his focus broadened from the bolt-bright fixation on his opponent's stance and blade to acknowledge, again, the silent audience, the creak of the age-polished wood underfoot, the sunlight filtering in.

Then he saw it. The unevenness of the flooring, the wood buckling just slightly...and the strands of cotton frayed on the edges.

Frayed from his opponent's hems. Just a tiny tug on the leg -- had it even been noticed...?

Seiji shook his head, and bowed, and declined.

"I cannot accept this victory."


	4. To Touch The Flame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryo acts.

_If someone told me when this mess started that we'd have half the bad guys on our side before it was over, I'd have laughed in their face._

_Shows what I know, huh._

But they did, and was Ryo glad for the backup. Not just because Arago was going to take everything they had; because it was just better that way.

_Better for us, for them, everyone but Arago. Works for me._  
 _Some people you just can't fix._   
_Especially if they're creepy demon armour people._

Couldn't be helped. Ryo lifted his blades high; if words couldn't change things, steel would.


	5. Unshakeable Steel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuu, the teacher.

"Hey now, knock that off. You know better than that."

Predictably, the armload of wailing little brother -- newly hauled away from a fistfight with a cousin -- instead chose to pound on Shuu's back with angry little fists, as outraged by the interference as he'd been by whatever upset sparked it.

Shuu ignored it all and didn't slow his stride until at least a dozen paces of living room separated the pair.

 _Then_ he put his squirming sibling down, and it was time for a patient, relentless lecture. And no excuses.

"If you're gonna fight, make sure it's a _good_ reason --!"


	6. To Know When To Act

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nasuti knows very well not all fighting is physical.

It wasn't a 'calling'; not the way fairy tales and fantasy stories liked to describe it. Certainly, being hunkered down in a half-collapsed subway line with a pack of high-strung teens in supernatural armour, a tiger and a panicky child hadn't felt like some special destiny.

When she watched her grandfather die, Nasuti wanted to tell destiny to go hang.

But her family had kept the record of that poem for so long, and Grandfather -- and she herself -- pored over it for so many hours to be ready.

And Nasuti knew damn well too much was riding on her now.


	7. Caught On The Horns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuten must decide what to lose.

Shuten was frozen, the words searing into his head like a brand on too-tender flesh: 

Forswear Arago? Abandon his place and turn away from all the agonies and shed blood over four centuries of servitude, for what?

For freedom. For walking away from the darkness while there was, somehow, still a chance. A chance to redeem himself -- if he wanted it. If he dared it.

But Arago was his lord; one did not forswear...

...But that was exactly it, wasn't it. 

That was the loophole Kaos offered: take the tonsure, remove himself from the binding of the warrior's code.

_I..._


	8. Layered Veils

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rajura, and perception.

Reality stopped being a concern a long time past. 

Not the physical world, no -- perched high above his victim, wind keening softly in his ears, Rajura was all too aware of his surroundings -- but the perception of it, what it _meant_. What it needed to mean. 

What it could be _made_ to mean.

Patient, he reached out to twist that perception awry and remold it into something more useful for his purpose; like pulling apart embroidered silks to remake the pattern into something more suitable.

Even his own awareness was of his own design. 

And that was so very soothing.


	9. The Best Are Willing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naaza has his own appreciation for the ties that bind.

It was almost charming. A slow smile crept across Naaza's face, to disappear in the flicker of an eye; yes, it was almost charming how so very devoted these fool children were to each other.

Look at the blind fool, now, stumbling in the dark in his quest to free the light one -- such delicious irony -- from his benighted tomb. Why he was willing to keep walking right into Naaza's waiting arms to that very purpose!

Naaza limbered his swords once again, the poisonous grin once more sliding into place. 

Such _charming_ devotion deserved its just reward, now didn't it.


	10. Black Dog's Leash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anubis has what he wants.

Some commands were simple enough to follow. Anubis was pleased to grant that much while he covered the distance with ground-devouring, world-warping speed and revelled in the night that promised to be unending. Some commands were simple enough, some directives welcomed.

It wasn't that _he_ was simple. Oh, never that. Rather that -- even after four centuries and more of his mad lord's netherworld -- he still considered himself a man of simple _pleasures_. Swift blades and ample theatrics and mocking laughter in the dark. The wolf at the door in Arago's endless winter of the soul.

What more to ask for?


End file.
